Let It R.I.P.

The title Let it R.I.P. can be read as an entry point for D’Ette Nogle’s exhibition. R.I.P. refers to the common expression rest in peace, a prayer for the deceased to find eternal rest. One might also see the title as the expression Let it rip—to let loose without restraint or regard for consequences. This dialectic in the title is characteristic of Nogle’s artistic practice and simultaneously establishes the conceptual method of her exhibition at the Kunstverein Braunschweig. On the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the United States this year—since the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, making the country one of the first modern representative democracies— the exhibition takes up the idea of parties. In English, the word party designates both a celebration and a political organization. Making productive use of this ambiguity, Nogle creates installations in which moments of communal togetherness, markers of affiliation, and consumption are juxtaposed with a tense atmosphere shaped by apocalyptic forecasts.

Since the 1990s, the Los Angeles­ based artist has developed a time-based practice that explores the convergence of social, political, cultural, and economic forces. Grounded in a conceptual approach, her works ask how historical imprints shape thought and perception, what constitutes a subject, and what artistic autonomy might mean. The invitation by an art institution to develop an exhibition serves as the point of departure for new works. Initiating her practice from a given context, Nogle engages with the structures and limitations of the inviting institution to establish a productive framework in which her works take shape. Consideration of the exhibition history, the institution’s place within the urban fabric, informal conversations with staff, as well as artistic interests and questions accompanying her at the time of the invitation, may all materialize in diverse ways. In the months leading up to the show, she absorbs information until sufficient material has accumulated to be condensed—through an extended process of editing—into multilayered works. Defined by the period of their production and the events occurring within it, on personal, societal, and political levels, the time­based nature of Nogle’s works is central in her engagement with context. The openness and receptiveness of her practice can lead her works to physically adapt to the institution. Materials available on site, along with distinctive features of the city, shape the aesthetic appearance of the works in Let it R.I.P., particularly noticeable in the Spiegelsaal (Hall of Mirrors) and the courtyard.

Within Let it R.I.P., installations emerge from materials that are familiar and everyday: consumer goods from daily life, leisure culture, advertising, and corporate environments. Working with these elements, Nogle situates her practice at its core in the act of drawing uncompromisingly from the already existing and from life itself, as exemplified in the Gartensaal (Garden Hall). By marking her position as both artist and consumer, and employing subtle wordplay, Nogle provides tools for reflection that unsettle fixed and well­rehearsed narratives, there­ by opening a space for critical thought. Through her zoomed-­in focus on complex matters along with idiosyncratic gestures, the exhibition brings the various objects and installations into a sometimes confrontational dialogue. Surface meanings collide with the underlying, as object and language, the material and the psychological, permeate, overlap, or negate one another. The unflinching, at times punkish humor embedded in the works and their titles is not mere ornament but method: a precise instrument that does not dilute complexity but renders it accessible.

As much as Nogle’s works are relational to the pre­existing context, they are equally relational to one another. Moving through the many rooms of the Kunstverein, a dynamic environment gradually unfolds, making the layering of different narratives, locations, and temporalities perceptible both physically and atmospherically. In Let it R.I.P., what has preceded does not appear as something relegated to the past but as an accumulation of residues, images, ideologies, and materials that continue to act in the present. Nothing encountered here has emerged from nothing. We contend with fragments from different times that persist and require our attention. Ultimately, these works are positioned in relation to us: they understand visitors as part of their fabric and suggest a positioning that is both physical and mental. Let it R.I.P. invites audiences to move through these charged spaces and to negotiate the contradictions that define contemporary life.

Text courtesy of the Kunstverein Braunschweig.